Just before we went to Benin, Emily found out that her mother needed to have unexpected surgery. So, Marty took her to Ghana after we returned. Since that time her mother's surgery went well and she is in recovery. We are so thankful to Emily for her service to our children and to the Kingdom in Togo. May God bless her and her family over the next few months as her mother gets better. Please keep her in your prayers.

Water, water, water! That's what they found at a depth of 45 feet. The Kpotonou area is so excited. After the digging kept getting deeper and deeper doubts began to rise in some minds of whether or not this was going to work out. Praise God, they found water. The mason reinforced the well wall last week and dug holes so that people can climb down into the well if need be. This Friday they will clean out the bottom of the well and everything will be ready to go! Next Sunday we're going to have a huge celebration during the Kpotonou worship service and officially open the well. Thank you for your prayers. God listened, answered and the Kpotonou people are going to have clean water to drink!

A lot has happened with our vehicle this past month. We had more trouble with it on our trip to Benin but made it home safely. The week after that I sold the vehicle to a man in Benin who buys and sells used cars. A week later he brought it back saying that the engine was having trouble and he wanted me to lower the price (which I did). Then he drove it away for a second time and we are now FREE from that vehicle's problems. It was a great vehicle and I'm thankful to the Lord for the 10's of thousands of miles that we drove it in His service. Since we only have two weeks left in Togo we're using the teacher's car and will double up with Koonces for our final voyage to Ghana before we leave on furlough. God has blessed us with enough funds to buy a new vehicle which we will order and have waiting for us when we return to Togo this coming January. We praise Him for taking care of our needs.

This past Friday and Saturday Christine and I hosted 15 leaders from the Adangbe and Sendome clusters. We ate and ate and ate and then ate some more. I didn't want them to leave hungry! We then watched "End of the Spear," a movie about God's work among the Anka people of Ecuador (Excellent movie by the way!). After that we watched a movie on reconciliation in Rwanda and then another movie called "Sometimes in April" about the Rwandan Genocide. Saturday morning, after a few hours of sleep, we talked about the messages in those movies and how God is working among us here in Watchi land to reconcile us to Him and to each other. We then had a very special prayer time as this was the last time that I will spend with them for the next eight months. My prayer is that God will do amazing things while we are away so that their confidence in His Spirit will reach new heights as they trust Him in all areas of their lives!

Thank you for praying for our China adoption. The wait time has gone up by four months since the last edition of the Tabligbo Times. This means that we are not expecting a referral until mid-2008. Please pray that the Lord would speed things up as well as give us patience until we can bring our daughter home.

Here's an idea of our schedule for the next month. May 6-10 (West African Missionary Retreat) May 10 (Amy returns to the States) May 11-21 (Family survey trip to Rwanda) May 25 (Arrival in Dallas). Please pray for our travels over the next few weeks as we will be traveling thousands of miles!

From Christine - As our furlough quickly approaches, we have been trying to prepare ourselves and those we work with for our departure. At my meetings last month with the Sedome and Batoe women, I encouraged them to keep meeting together and praying for each other. We made a plan to meet together this month in Agodeke to pray for the women in that new church. So this past Monday I drove to Batoe and joined the women in the hour long walk to Agodeke. Sedome women also walked 45 minutes from their village to meet with us in Agodeke. There were a total of 24 women at the meeting. Most of them walked 45 minutes to an hour to get there. I was so thankful to share in that day with them and to see their willingness to come and encourage the Agodeke christians.

We spent our time singing and praying for each other. The Agodeke women prepared a meal for everyone. Before the meal was served, one of the women from Batoe asked that everyone give 50 francs to help with the meal. I was touched by this gesture. Agodeke is a very poor village and it is very expensive to feed such a large crowd. I was encouraged to see the women from Batoe and Sedome helping the Agodeke christians. Please pray for the women of these three villages. Pray that they will indeed meet together and pray for one another. Pray especially for the women of Agodeke. They are very young in their faith and face daily persecution from the pagans in their village. Pray that the Batoe and Sedome women will support and encourage them.

Stephen and Matthew are doing great! (Pictured with Tori Vaughn @ VGAP) They only have one week left of school. This past school year haspassed so quickly. The boys are very excited to go to Rwanda next month. They are also thrilled to go to America and see their grandparents and cousins.

~ April 6 ~ I had a wonderful time at our retreat at Casa del Papa in Benin! It was wonderful to spend more time with the Kara team and meet the Vaughn family for the first time. Having air conditioned rooms was a special treat. I enjoyed our spiritual sharing times singing and praying together. It was so much fun to step out the front door of our room and into warm sand. I didn't get much reading done, but I did get a nap every afternoon. We had a great lunch at China Town with the Koonces as we passed through Lome on our way home. I had a funny Trevor moment while we were at the restaurant he asked me to have a nose war with him, turns out he meant an Eskimo kiss.

My mother is having unexpected major surgery. After praying and discussing it with the team I have decided to go home to help and support my family. My flight leaves Accra April 9th. I will miss Togo and miss spending time with the boys everyday. I look forward to coming back and teaching for the team again next year. I will be praying for the team to finish this last month strong and be blessed by their upcoming furlough.

~ Update ~ Emily's mother's surgery went well and she is home recovering. Please continue to pray for Emily and her family, that the Lord's hand of healing and strength will be upon them.

From Marty - Things are coming along in preparation for our pending survey trip to Rwanda and our furlough. This coming week we will be wrapping up our teachings with the leadership training. Those being trained seem to be ready for the test of our departure as they are making plans for growing the churches in our absence. I am greatly encouraged by the Sunday visits our family has had for the last three weeks in Topeglo, Angansigle, and Amengran. These are all churches that have been planted without our assistance in the last year. They are all experiencing growing pains of sorts but by faith they are rising to the occasions. Please keep them in your prayers as they are all a proving ground for the hope we have of the church here experiencing sustainable growth beyond our presence in Togo. My health has improved for which I am thankful for your prayers and I hope to stay malaria free until our furlough begins in late May. Please keep praying for the churches here and their leaders to be holy and full of the love of Christ proclaiming his death and resurrection without fear or inhibition of any kind.

From Louise - The higher the thermostat climbs, the closer I get to leaving town! We have three weeks before we leave Togo for eight months. I certainly hope it doesn't just keep getting hotter until we leave. There is so much to do in that time and yet the heat makes me move very slowly.

We were very sad to have to send off Emily early, but were very glad she could be with her family during her mother's surgery. She has reported to us that her mother is recovering well.

There seems to be a baby boom around us, I guess there is always a baby boom in Africa. A few weeks ago we shared pictures of Koffi's new baby, yesterday we took part in a baby blessing in Angasigle (baby Sandra is pictured in her mothers arms with many hands laid on her), and we have learned that our friends Anku and his wife will have another baby. But the most adventurous baby story for me was a couple of weeks ago when we went to visit the new Topeglo church. When we got there a little late, we were surprised that the church had made some preparations, but had not begun. We soon were told that the tardiness was because one of the Christians was in labor. So two of the women with us from Tabligbo and myself, went to pray for her. Yes, right in the hut, we were praying for her between contractions. We returned to the church place and they started services. Not long after, the husband came to say she was having difficulty and could we take her to the hospital. Marty decided to stay and continue on with the church and I drove the "ambulance" to the clinic. God miraculously smoothed out the roads and we arrived at the clinic quickly. I was amazed to find there were ruts in the road on the way back that we had not felt at all on the way there. He is faithful.

It was kind of fun to give four spelling tests at once on Friday, "Stephen, spell alphabet. Tanner, taught. Matthew, spelling. Trevor, lie. Ok, next words..." But then Matthew chimed in, "Miss Amy, 'lie' is a bad word. Trevor is spelling a bad word!"

I think that Trevor and Matthew take great delight in asking me to show them how to write letters in cursive. I never learned cursive in school (I was home schooled and we used a different handwriting program) and they think it's funny when I have to look at their handwriting books to figure out how to write a capital "S." :)

We had "graduation" for the boys the night before Emily flew back to the States. They marched in to "Pomp and Circumstance" played on the violin and each received a certificate that recognized them for a specific area of character growth this year. It was a fun evening and a good way to say farewell to Emily.